Hellboy's Halloween
by epalladino
Summary: It all started with a special evening in 1949. There are now two epilogues, one post the 2004 movie and one post "The Golden Army". Beware spoilers if you haven't seen either the first movie or "The Golden Army". Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

**Hellboy's Halloween**

**Author's notes:** Couldn't resist reposting this with a post-Golden Army epilogue…

_**Somewhere in New Mexico  
Monday, October 31, 1949**_

Linda's doorbell rang for what must have been the millionth time, but that really didn't bother her. She loved passing out candy on Halloween. She went to the door to find a gentleman in a three-piece tweed suit escorting a rather large boy dressed up as Superman.

"Trick-or-treat!" enthusiastically shouted the boy as he held out the pillowcase he was collecting his treats in, "Got any Baby Ruth bars in there?"

"Son, I told you to stop asking that question every house we go to," said the man in what Linda discerned as a British accent, "I apologize for his rudeness, ma'am, but that is his favorite candy."

"It just so happens that it's my favorite too," Linda said, noting the difference in accent between father and son. "And who are you supposed to be disguised as?" she asked the boy as she fished around in her bowl of treats for the requested Baby Ruth bar.

"I'm Superman, can't you tell? I like Superman. I want to be strong like him when I grow up and protect people just like he does. And now I get to go around and get candy just like the other kids."

Linda laughed. Obviously, this was the young boy's first time out. She dropped two Baby Ruth bars into his bag. "I'm sure if you eat enough of these you will grow very big and strong."

"Gee, thanks, lady." The boy turned away and ran down the steps.

"Your son is very cute, sir. Do you live around here? I don't think I recognize you."

"We don't reside in this exact neighborhood, but have lived in an area near here for several years. Thank you for your generosity. Believe me, this is a very special night for him. My job places so many requirements and restrictions on me that we don't get to do things like this very often."

The man turned and joined the young boy who was eager to go on to another house.

As she started to go back in, Linda heard the man's voice. "Son, believe me, it is very rude to keep asking people if they have Baby Ruth bars. At the next house graciously accept what is offered."

Linda turned back and watched father and son approach another house. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew there was something really different about that pair.

Laughing quietly to herself, she walked back in and closed her door.


	2. Post 2004 Movie Epilogue

**Hellboy's Halloween**

**_—Post 2004 movie Epilogue_**

**_Same location,  
Monday, October 31, 2005_**

Hellboy stood across the street, staring at the house that he had finally managed to locate again after all these decades. Hearing some footsteps approaching, he shrank back further into the shadows and watched as an older boy escorted what were probably his two younger siblings. The girl was dressed in the same shimmering-pink princess gown Hellboy had seen at least five times before and the boy as a silver-clad knight in vinyl shining armor; complete with plastic chain mail and rubber sword.

He watched the elderly woman who answered the door 'ooh' and 'aah' over the little girl and admire the crest the boy had etched on his cardboard shield. Leaning forward a little more, he looked more closely at the woman with her blue jeans, pumpkin-embossed black T-shirt, and short-cut silver hair.

He was certain the house was the same house he recalled from the only time Trevor Broom had ever been able to take him trick-or-treating; but was unsure if the woman, even if around the correct age, was the same woman he had met there all those years before. Part of him wanted to go up and knock on the door to find out; part of him wanted to turn around and make his way back to the secret military base located in a nearby desert that he had departed from several hours before.

Continuing to stare at the house, Hellboy sighed. For the few years that he had lived in New Mexico, he had been young enough and naïve enough to be almost totally happy; mostly unaware of how much his life was being endangered by the 'scientific research' he had been compelled to undergo, until Trevor Broom put a stop to it.

Hellboy was now much older, possibly wiser, and certainly more cynical; and yet, he was homesick for the time when he had been small enough that Trevor Broom was able to bury him under an oddly constructed Superman costume and take him around, pillowcase in hand, to collect candy.

"Hey, great costume! You're supposed to be that Hellboy guy from the comics, right?"

A little startled by this sudden interruption, Hellboy turned toward an eight- or nine-year-old boy dressed as Spiderman.

"Brian, don't bother the man," said the middle-aged-man who accompanied the young boy.

Hellboy winked at the boy, "The kid's right. Amazing the crap you can get off eBay, isn't it?"

Suddenly feeling a lot more light-hearted than he had felt in days, Hellboy strode across the street and rapped at the door of the house he had been observing.

Even though she moved a little more slowly each year than she had the year before, Linda still loved to pass out candy at Halloween. She went to the door to find a man, close to seven feet tall, in the oddest-looking costume she had ever seen.

"Trick-or-treat!" he said with a grin, "Got any Baby Ruth bars in there?"

"I'm sorry, I only pass out candy to …" Linda, stopping in mid-sentence, looked more closely at the giant of a man standing on her front porch, "Oh, my, you did grow big and strong, didn't you, dear?"

"Guess so," Hellboy chuckled, "You must have been right 'bout eating those Baby Ruth bars."

"Do you and your father still live near here?" Linda said, as she dug around in her bowl of candy.

"Nah, I live in Newark now. Got a wife and everything." Hellboy looked away, and then looked back. "My father's been gone for almost a year now. That's why I came back here, really. He still had some property in New Mexico that needed taken care of. Hope you don't mind that I came around."

"No, of course not," Linda said, as she handed Hellboy two Baby Ruth bars. "Now, don't eat too many more of these. I don't see that you need to grow much bigger than you are now. And your father seemed like such a small man. You must have gotten your tall genes from someone else."

Hellboy looked at the two Baby Ruth bars he now held in his hand, and then back up at Linda.

"I'm adopted, you know. So, I did I get my 'tall genes' from someone else. You're right. My father was a small man and if I ever become even half the man he was, I can count myself lucky."

Hellboy pushed the two candy bars into one of the pockets of his coat. Leaning down, he gently kissed the elderly woman's cheek. "Well, I better go. We're flying back home tomorrow."

As he turned and walked quickly away, Linda could swear that another man was walking beside him. But when she blinked, the other man was gone and Hellboy was again walking alone.

_Thanks for reading. The costumes described were ones seen by me on my way home from work. A Post-Golden Army epilogue has now been added._


	3. Post Golden Army Epilogue

**Author's note: **As this is one of my favorite stories, I couldn't resist another epilogue. In my opinion, Hellboy II; The Golden Army, which gives little clue as to the year the story is taking place, can't be dated too far past the end of the first film. It is my personal opinion that the year that the action is taking place in the second movie is 2005, so that by the time you get to this current year any children Liz would have given birth to would be somewhere between 2 and 3 years old. On Halloween this year I saw the cutest kids of that age range in the most adorable costumes and I couldn't resist adding to my little Halloween story.

**Hellboy's Halloween**

—_**A Post-**__**Golden Army**__** Epilogue**_

_**Same location,  
Friday, October 31, 2008**_

Linda noted, as the years passed by, that each Halloween brought less and less children to her door with their shouts of 'trick or treat' and their adorable costumes. These days, security concerns were paramount and many parents took their children to specially designated parties rather than taking them around door-to-door. Still, there were some parents who preferred to keep up the Halloween traditions of their youth. Linda's brightly decorated house was always a favorite stop in their quest to make their children's Halloween special.

A bit later in the evening than she would have expected for a parent bringing around younger children, her doorbell rang. Upon opening her door, she discovered a woman with shoulder-length dark hair, who looked to be in her early thirties. Holding her hand was a little boy, dressed in an obviously homemade Superman costume that, even though it seemed to have been taken in, was still quite a bit too large for him. The costume and accompanying rubber mask looked oddly familiar to Linda.

Just as these thoughts crossed her mind, a large man came up behind the woman. He was the same man who had come to Linda's door three years earlier, with his bright red skin, tail, sawed-off horns, and huge right hand. Holding his normal-sized left hand was a little girl, whose delicate features and long, dark hair broadcast that she was the daughter of the woman holding the boy's hand.

The girl was dressed in what appeared to be a drastically re-sized black evening gown that had probably once belonged to the woman. A matching scarlet-lined cape covered over anything else that could be seen of the girl and, like the boy, she was wearing gloves. Both of the children were carrying plastic buckets in the shape of Halloween pumpkins.

Before Linda had the chance to completely take in what she was seeing, the little boy shouted, "Wanna Baby Ruth!"

"Trevor, what did I tell you?" hissed the woman, "Just take what the nice lady offers."

Linda couldn't help laughing. "I always keep a supply of Baby Ruth bars on hand, just in case certain boys turn up at my door." She pulled two of the candy bars out of the bowl she was holding and handed them to the boy who was obviously named Trevor. He placed them in his bucket.

"And what would this pretty little lady want?" Linda moved toward the young girl, who seemed a bit more timid than the boy and shrank a little closer to the man whose hand she held.

The man smiled down at the girl. "Don't worry, Katie, she's a really nice lady."

Katie let go of his hand and moved toward Linda, who lowered the bowl down toward her.

"Want that one," she almost whispered as she took a miniature Almond Joy out of the bowl and then at Linda's gesture she took another one.

"Now, Trevor and Katie, what do you say to the nice lady?" the man said.

"Thank you," they both spoke up at the same time.

As the girl dropped the candy in her bucket and went back to the man's side, Linda couldn't help noticing that her cape had become slightly askew. The man quickly readjusted it, but not before Linda thought she saw, peeking out from the costume, something most children would not usually have.

Looking up into the man's golden-yellow eyes, Linda could read conflicting emotions, pride combined with a touch of fear. She had been around for long enough in this life to understand both the pride and the fear; and hated how some would make this man's children feel ostracized or even worse.

After his last visit, Linda had done some digging around on the Internet and believed she had figured out who this large, red man was. For her part, she was proud that the one they called 'Hellboy' felt connected enough to her to want to bring his family to meet her.

"This must be the wife you mentioned to me three years ago and these are obviously your children. They're just adorable."

As Linda dug two more Baby Ruth bars out of her bowl and handed them to Hellboy, the fear faded from his eyes, but the pride remained. "Yeah, they're not bad for kids. At least when they're behaving the way they should." With a smile, he shoved the two candy bars in a pocket of his coat.

"We're good, aren't we, Mummy," Trevor spoke up.

"Sure, we're real good," Katie agreed.

"Well, pretty good," the young woman smiled down at her children. "Although, over-heated children do become cranky and I don't like being too hot myself. Red should've reminded me that New Mexico is twice as hot as home. I could've packed some different clothes."

"Is home still Newark?" Linda recalled the city having been mentioned the last time she met Hellboy.

"Nah, it's Northern Ireland now," he replied. "It's a kinda long story why Liz and I are there, but it's a great place to bring up the twins. I still freelance in my old job once in a while and I sometimes need to come around to check up on my father's property. I thought you'd like to meet the wife and kids."

"I'm delighted that you wanted to show them off to me. Would you like to come in for a while?"

Hellboy shook his head. "We'd love to, but we have to fly to Newark tomorrow to check some things out there before we go back to Northern Ireland."

While Linda watched the family walking away, she couldn't help thinking of the man and his young son she had met fifty-nine years earlier. Even though Linda only met this man once, she could tell just how much he cared for the boy he had been raising.

As she recalled this, she thought she saw this same man walking alongside Hellboy and his family; just as she had, for a brief moment three years before, thought she had seen him walking beside the grown son who had been still grieving his father's death. Unfortunately, this man had not lived long enough to see his son's children. Yet, as Linda watched what appeared to her to be five people walking together, she understood that there were some families that even death could not separate.

_**Author's afterword: **I couldn't resist adding another epilogue to my little Halloween story, giving some idea of what I think the twins might be like. As Hellboy is actually half human, my idea is that his children will look more human than he does. I once encountered in a restaurant a three-year-old boy who conversed in more accurate grammar than most adults. I have patterned the twins dialogue after the way this little boy talked. In my opinion, with the fact that Hellboy was supposed to have been highly intelligent as a child and with Liz as their mother, these twins could be quite precocious. I can't wait to see what Guillermo del Toro actually has in mind for Liz and Hellboy's offspring._

_Thanks for reading. All feedback welcome._


End file.
